Religion

Cathedrals, Etc

by William Wordsworth 1770–1850

From Ecclesiastical Sonnets

Religion

Open your gates, ye everlasting Piles!
Types of the spiritual Church which God hath reared;
Not loth we quit the newly-hallowed sward
And humble altar, 'mid your sumptuous aisles
To kneel, or thrid your intricate defiles,
Or down the nave to pace in motion slow;
Watching, with upward eye, the tall tower grow
And mount, at every step, with living wiles
Instinct--to rouse the heart and lead the will
By a bright ladder to the world above.
Open your gates, ye Monuments of love
Divine! thou Lincoln, on thy sovereign hill!
Thou, stately York! and Ye, whose splendours cheer
Isis and Cam, to patient Science dear!

MLA

Wordsworth, William. “Cathedrals, Etc.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wordsworth/554/.

Chicago

Wordsworth, William. “Cathedrals, Etc.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wordsworth/554/.

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